


Fish-Cats & Canaries

by TiredRazzberry



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Cute, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Gen, Genetic Engineering, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 15:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10700115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiredRazzberry/pseuds/TiredRazzberry
Summary: Pearl shows off her latest creation to her brother.





	Fish-Cats & Canaries

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I Own Nothing. All rights belong to Suzanne Collins. 
> 
> ***  
> This is actually a rewrite of something I wrote a few years ago. I hope you enjoy it.

"Science has gone too far."

That was the first thing Jay said to his sister when she showed him the results of her latest experiment, to which she only chuckled. It was a cat…with fish scales and fins. It was bright orange with curious green eyes and a little pink nose. It had whiskers, eyes, and a face like a cat, the body and claws of a cat. But a scaly body and a tail as big as an otter's with yellow fins attached. Yellows fins also extended from its cat-like ears and legs. According to Pearl, it had no gills, but Jay observed that the muttation could stay under water for quite a long time as it merrily swam and played in the tank before him. It was both cute and the most disturbing thing Jay had ever laid eyes on.

"Please tell me you are not directly responsible for this… _thing_ ' _s_ existence." He pleaded as he watched the cat-fish play swat at its goldfish roommates.

Pearl looked insulted. "That  _thing_ , I'll have you know, is my new pet. And yes, I did make it."  

Jay knew he was going to regret asking, but curiosity won over all. "Why on earth would you make it? And why would you want it as a pet?"

Pearl shrugged. As if this was something to shrug at. "I'm being paid to mix the DNA of animals from totally separate genera in order to create super hybrids. And I love both cats and fish quite a bit. This was going to happen one way or the other." She answered matter-of-factly.

"I thought they already knew how to create hybrids." _Mutts_ , their elders sneered.

"Yes, but not very efficiently. Back in the old days it took hundreds of trials and errors, countless animals abused and discarded, all just to create a few successful hybrids. Even then, most hybrids had defects that either made their life a living Hell, dramatically shortened and fragile, or all of the above. My lab is working to create animal hybrids humanely. Sea Star here is our first success; a perfect, happy, healthy fish-cat."

She said it as if it were a good thing that she had gene-spliced a mutant fish-cat into existence. But that was just Pearl. As serious and practical as their mother could be, Pearl was the exact opposite. You couldn't even say she was like their father since Pearl had exited the womb marching to the beat of her own drum. That march being done in eccentric clothing with her nose in a scientific journal.

"Why do they still even need to make hybrids? Mom said the Capital used to use them in the Hunger Games and to control the Districts." Jay asked, eyeing the fish-cat suspiciously.

Pearl rolled her eyes at him. "Animals have been used since the dawn of civilization for purposes other than gladiator duels to the death. Sea Star here could be used in aquaculture in District 4 to root out the fish too small for us and maybe protect the fish from predatory sea life. And not just fish-cats. We have plans to create hybrids of dogs, cows, chickens, birds, and even insects, if possible. There's a whole world of possibilities out there, Jay." She explained with the same giddiness she used as a little girl when talking about how the first day of school went and all the new friends she had made.

Jay remained unconvinced. He didn't like messing with the insides of living beings unless he was elbow deep in surgery.

As if reading his mind, Pearl sent him a scowl from her rolling chair. The green eyeliner she wore served to make her blue gaze all the fiercer. However, it did nothing to make her ridiculously hairdo look any less outlandish. Or her long, silky, sea green dress with golden heels look any less out of place in her multi-billion-dollar genetic laboratory. High fashion and hi-tech did not mix in Jay's opinion.

Anything resembling Old Capital fashions had been shunned in the years following the revolution and leading up to their births. Of course, Pearl and Jay hadn’t been there to bear witness to the changing trends, but Jay recalled old photos and videos where Effie Trinket, Auntie Octavia, and Uncle Flavius were near unrecognizable from their Games Era selves as well as the versions of them that Jay and his sister grew up with. They were downright _drab_. Everyone in Panem was. It only seemed right considering all the tough work ahead of them and all the grief behind them.

By the time Pearl was born, things began to change. As Panem began to flourish not only in its capital but in each of its districts, color seeped back into its citizens. Gone were the greys and the browns and mourning wear, replaced by vivid hues and bold patterns. District citizens took up tweezers and makeup sponges. They became bolder with their scissors. More extreme cosmetics never did gain favor with the older lot, but those who had only just learned to walk when a fiery chariot brought up the rear of the tribute parade and younger were not shy with the dyes and piercings. In time, minor surgeries became a social norm.

Pearl had been dying her hair since she was thirteen. She had to go behind their mother’s back for it, once going as far as taking a train to Panem City to have Octavia chemically treat her scalp so her hair grew pink for a year. As an adult, her hair was its natural dark brown, but she had had her breasts augmented and sleeved her arms with colorful tattoos that stood out starkly against her tan skin.

Even Jay and his dower mother were guilty of indulgences.

Jay kept his hair long, a golden mane bound at the top of his neck with golden twine each morning. If he was truly the ascetic erudite he had led so many to believe with his grim expressions and curt words alone, his hair would be sheared short like a soldier’s. But it wasn’t.

Mother liked fashion more than she would ever own up to. She liked looking nice, though occasions to get dolled up were few and far apart in District 12. Jay could count the number of times his mother seemed truly alive on one hand, and half those occasions saw her donning a pretty dress and at least a touch of makeup.

Nothing ever as ridiculous as Pearl’s clothes.

"Don't look at me like that," Pearl snapped.

"Like what?" Jay asked, confused. He had been a bit lost in his own head.

"Like I'm  _unbelievable._ ” Pearl’s lips curled like the word was dirty. “As if you guys don't do crazy things over at the hospital for the sake of furthering science, too."

The accusation took Jay aback. "We don't do anything half as messed up as you and your mad scientists!" He protested angrily.

Pearl scoffed. "I bet that's what you tell everyone,  _Mr. Head of Medicine_." She knew how much he hated that title. Pearl always had known how to push his buttons.

It was all her fault in the first place he even had that title.

He should have never written her all those years ago.

He had been twelve and by then Pearl had lived in Panem City, working as a student-intern at the country’s top research laboratory for two years. Jay was spending the summer in District 4 with their grandmother, helping her out at the hospital between swims in the ocean.

Grandmother had taught him a lot about being a healer during those few months. She taught him both medicinal and more modern medical techniques, she taught him good bedside manner and how to be fearless even in the face of a dying man (or a naked one), and Jay loved it. He loved helping people, and he realized what he wanted to do with his life.

He had said so in his letter to Pearl a week before he was due back home in District 12. When he arrived back home, two letters awaited him. The first from Pearl, stating she had gotten his letter and was happy to hear that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. The second was from the government, and it said he didn't have to wait until he grew up.

Mother had fought tooth and nail to convince him to stay in District 12, be a normal kid, and wait until he was grown up to pursue his dream. Father did the same, though less fiercely. All for naught. At the time, all Jay wanted was the opportunity described to him in the letter. Due to his burgeoning talent and a shortage of medical personnel in the country, an institution in the capital was willing to put Jay up in a dorm with several other gifted children, apprentice him to a general practitioner, and train him as a doctor. Free of charge so long as he pledged his services to the government when his training was complete. Jay had left District 12 shortly after his thirteenth birthday and had not returned for more than a short visit since. Neither of his parents had forgiven him for following his sister’s footsteps in abandoning them as soon as he could.

Less than a decade later, Jay had somehow climbed the ranks to Head of Medicine at the city’s most prestigious hospital. It wasn't unheard of for teens to gain so much success in so little time—the fact the Capital had once thought twelve was a decent age to start putting kids in 24-way death matches proved they had no right in saying that twelve wasn't a decent age to begin training as a doctor or scientist. But to think nepotism had nothing to do with it would be foolish. Jay knew most of his and his sister's success came from who their parents were. Their talent alone in their individual fields merited nothing more than a low rank in which they would have room to grow and a chance of promotion later down the line. Their parentage merited them titles such as Head of Medicine and Head Researcher of the Hybrid Project.

Jay hated his position for that reason. He sometimes felt like he was nothing more than a figurehead. He could no longer do what he loved, being cooped up in an office all day, signing endless piles of paperwork and responding to letters and emails. Few respected his authority, seeing him merely as a child. Lately, he had been thinking he would have been better off if he stayed in District 12 and did his time there until he was old enough to apply to a university.

Jay wondered if Pearl experienced the same problems he did in her own line of work.

"Does it ever bother you how people see us?" He asked.

She shrugged, understanding his cryptic question without effort. Growing up in a house full of mysterious explanations and trailed off, wistful sentences, they had learned to pick up on what others really meant rather adeptly. Any other person would have asked what he meant or demanded who was talking trash about them behind their backs.

"I try not to. In fact, I try to prove them wrong. Every day for the past five years." She answered. "And you know what, if this project succeeds, I may finally shut their mouths once and for all." Pearl grinned like a shark. "I won't just be the Girl on Fire's daughter anymore. Maybe I'll be the Girl Who Made Fish-Cats!"

She laughed, and Jay couldn't help but join her. They laughed until they were breathless, and then looked at Sea Star in her tank and laughed some more.

When they were finished, Jay’s ribs hurt.

Pearl panted out with a smile, "And maybe someday you can stop being the Mockingjay's son and be your own man."

Jay flushed at the statement. It was so weird to think of himself like a grown man almost when he still felt like a kid—a kid with an adult job and rank, but still a kid. At the same time, it sounded more appealing than having subordinates with the gull to look down their noses at you.

"Maybe I will." The words were a soft promise to himself to try. Jay thought of all the possibilities out there for him still. Of all he could do, since he was still a kid and all. His thoughts on potential endeavors and ridiculous fantasies of parades in his honor blurred together until a splash of cold water rudely awakened him.

The mutant fist-cat abomination had splashed Jay with her thick, scaly tail and was leveling him with a feline look of contempt through the glass of the tank. Jay sent the wretched little sea urchin a glare that might as well have been a barrage of arrows darting from his eyes. Sensing the teen's murderous intent, the creature swam to the bottom of her tank to hide in the seaweed.

"Are you really going to keep that  _thing_  as a pet?" Jay asked as he furiously wiped his face dry with his sleeve.

Pearl threw her head back in unabashed amusement. "Of course! Sea Star is my baby!" She exclaimed and then proceeded to coo over the miserable little beast like it really was her child.

Jay sighed in aggravation.

"Of course your pet would be a combination of my two least favorite animals on the planet." He grumbled.

Pearl grinned mischievously, as if that had been the plan all along. No doubt, it probably had been.

"What's your most favorite animal then?" She asked as she reached down into the tank to pet Sea Star, who eagerly pressed her head into her creator's hand.

Jay smiled, thinking of what waited for him at home in a gilded cage with a door that was always open, a little bird that sang the prettiest tunes along with him and was as yellow as the sun and Jay’s own hair.

"Easy, canaries."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave kudos and comments!


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